Mayo Clinic Trustees Welcome New Member, Elect Emeritus Member

November 8, 2013

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The Mayo Clinic Board of Trusteeswelcomed Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of Google, as a new member during a meeting today. The trustees also elected Shirley Weis, retiring Mayo Clinic vice president and chief administrative officer, as an emeritus trustee.

Since joining Google in 2001, Schmidt has helped grow the company from a Silicon Valley startup to a global leader in technology. As executive chairman, he is responsible for the external matters of Google: building partnerships and broader business relationships, government outreach and technology thought leadership, as well as advising the CEO and senior leadership on business and policy issues.

From 2001 to 2011, Schmidt served as Google's chief executive officer, overseeing the company's technical and business strategy alongside founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page. Under his leadership, Google dramatically scaled its infrastructure and diversified its product offerings while maintaining a strong culture of innovation.

Prior to joining Google, Schmidt was the chairman and CEO of Novell and chief technology officer at Sun Microsystems, Inc. Previously, he served on the research staff at Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), Bell Laboratories and Zilog. He holds a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Princeton University as well as a master's degree and Ph.D. in computer science from the University of California, Berkeley.

Schmidt is a member of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology and the Prime Minister's Advisory Council in the U.K. He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2006 and inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences as a fellow in 2007. He also chairs the board of the New America Foundation, and since 2008 has been a trustee of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J.

Weis will retire from Mayo Clinic at the end of 2013. Weis has served as Mayo's chief administrative officer since 2007 and been a member of the Mayo Clinic Board of Trustees since 2004. She began her career at Mayo Clinic in 1995 as the executive director of MMSI, became chair of the Managed Care Department in 1999, and served as the vice chair of administration for Mayo Clinic in Arizona from 2001 to 2007.

The Mayo Clinic Board of Trustees, a 31-member group of public representatives and Mayo Clinic physicians and administrators, is responsible for patient care, medical education and research at Mayo Clinic's sites in Jacksonville, Fla.; Rochester, Minn.; Phoenix and Scottsdale, Ariz; and Mayo Clinic Health System clinics and hospitals in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa and Georgia.

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